With the Project 2010 release, we have deprecated the Project Guide content. For the end user, this means there is no way through the UI to show the Project Guide. However, there is away to display the Project Guide through the OM. So if you have your own custom guide, you can still use it with a bit of work. This post will show you how to do this in three easy steps.

The first step is to write a method that turns the guide on and off. To do this, we need to have a guide, so I am going to use the one that we shipped in Project 2007. However, the default Project Guide files need some changes:

The folder structure should be flattened. All Project Guide files unzip to a subfolder named DefaultProjectGuideFiles.

The gbui:// protocol is removed. The custom "goal-based user interface" protocol and Project Guide resources are not installed with Microsoft Project 2010. For example, the following line in MainPage.htm: <script src="gbui://mainpage.js" language="JScript"></script>

In this post, I will be showing how you can use the Ribbon designer in Visual Studio 2010 to create custom ribbons in Project Client 2010. To get started, you will need a copy of Visual 2010 with the Office Tools installed and Project Client 2010 installed.

To get started, open Visual Studio and create a new Project 2010 add-in:

Next, you need to add the Ribbon Designer by adding a user control to you project:

In the Ribbon Designer, add the controls you want to include on your ribbon. In my example, I am going to add a simple button, which when clicked, will display a message box with the name of the active project:

Double click on the button to view the code for the ribbon. Here, we are going to add a reference to the Project interop assembly and a static variable that will reference the application:

Code Snippet

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;

using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;

namespace ProjectAddIn2

{

publicpartialclassRibbon1

{

publicstatic MSProject.Application Appliction;

privatevoid Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)

{

}

}

}

The next step is to set the Application variable in the start up method of the add-in:

Code Snippet

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Xml.Linq;

using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;

using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;

namespace ProjectAddIn2

{

publicpartialclassThisAddIn

{

privatevoid ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

Ribbon1.Appliction = Application;

}

privatevoid ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

}

#region VSTO generated code

///<summary>

/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify

/// the contents of this method with the code editor.

///</summary>

privatevoid InternalStartup()

{

this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);

this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);

}

#endregion

}

}

Last step is to add a message box that displays the name of the project:

Code Snippet

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;

using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;

using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace ProjectAddIn2

{

publicpartialclassRibbon1

{

publicstatic MSProject.Application Appliction;

privatevoid Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)

{

}

privatevoid button1_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)

{

MessageBox.Show("Active Project: " + Appliction.ActiveProject.Name);

}

}

}

When you compile and run the application, you should see Project client boot and have the ribbon appear:

In this webcast, we focus on the customization of the Microsoft Project 2010 client user interface, and we discuss the new Ribbon interface and custom task panes. We also introduce the Microsoft Project 2010 Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) add-in and show how to use the Ribbon Designer.

Presenter: Chris Boyd, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation Chris Boyd is a program manager on the Microsoft Project team, where he is focused on programmability, performance, and Microsoft Exchange integration.

All of the projects contain a Hands On Lab and a walkthrough video. Follow the links below to blog posts providing further details for each project template.

Silverlight Web Part Project Template

The Silverlight Web Part Project template will create a fully functioning Silverlight Web Part project ready for deployment. The project template also uses a Silverlight control generator that replaces some of the functionality that was deprecated from the Silverlight 3.0 SDK. This makes it easy for developers to quickly create a custom Silverlight application that goes beyond the functionality of the built in Silverlight Web Parts. Developers have total control over the Web Part such as how the Silverlight plugin code is generated and other Web Part behavior. For more details and a quick walkthrough visit: Silverlight and SharePoint project template

Server Ribbon Project Item Template

One of the new features in SharePoint 2010 is the Server Ribbon. The Server Ribbon brings all of the goodness that the Client Ribbon provides to SharePoint. Creating a ribbon requires that the developer code the ribbon xml by hand. Doing this by hand has a steep learning curve to get started. The Server Ribbon Project Item template makes it easy to create a Server Ribbon by following the wizard. In addition to the wizard there are code snippets for create all of the ribbon controls. This is a great way to learn the correct ribbon xml to make powerful user interfaces in SharePoint. For more details and a quick walkthrough visit: SharePoint Ribbon project template

OBA Deployment Project Item Template

SharePoint enables you to create custom content types that can be attached to document libraries. Creating rich OBA document templates using Visual Studio and deploying them to SharePoint is a common pattern that developers use to enable Line of Business applications. If you’ve deployed a document-level add-in to SharePoint you are familiar with the number of steps involved in this process. The OBA Custom Content Types Project Item template removes all of these steps and reduces the process down to a simple wizard and an F5 deployment. The extensibility project does all of the work making the developers more productive.

It’s my pleasure to announce series of upcoming Project 2010 webcasts for developers and BI specialists - spanning from extending User Interface of Project 2010 to deep drill down on workflow creation and extending the BI using Excel Services and Performance Point Services!

We would like to also announce the Project 2010 Solution Starters! They were created to help in deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! In this regard we offer two series of Web Casts – the introductory series as well as deep code drill-down. Please note the source code and additional documents will be available after the respective webcast.

What is in this post?

Project 2010 Developer Targeted webcasts

(yes – this timeline was created using Project Professional 2010)

Title

Level

Date

Abstract

Presenter

URL

MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 Programmability

200

On Demand

In this webcast, we provide an overview of the programmability enhancements that are in the upcoming versions of Microsoft Office Project 2010 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2010. We highlight Windows Communication Foundation, Ribbon programmability, and the new programmability features such as Workflow. We also discuss writing backwards compatibility for Microsoft Office Project 2007 applications.

The first in a series of webcasts on extending grid pages in Project Web App it will focus on initializing custom grid code and interactions between the grid and the Project Web App Ribbon. In particular we will see how to add additional functionality to the project center.

This presentation will focus on Project Client user interface customization. In particular, the new Ribbon interface and custom task panes. It will also introduce the Project 2010 VSTO add-in and show how to use the Ribbon designer.

This web Cast will cover technical details of how workflows work within Project Server 2010. We will go into how we are built ontop of sharepoint, how workflows connet with PWA, and what customizations can be done through UI level.

This web Cast will cover the end to end story of creating workflows within Visual Studio. We will discussing how to setup Visual Studio, how to create a basic workflow, and go over the different activities a developer will need in order to create a Project Server 2010 workflow.

Learn about the Project 2010 SDK content for Project Professional as well as for Project Server. This Web Cast explores the major parts of the SDK and includes development demonstrations using some the new Project 2010 features.

This Web Cast will cover the different approaches customers and partners can take to create Project Server 2010 Workflows. Whereas previous only Visual Studio was supported for creating Project 2010 Workflows, investments within this area has now opened up different avenues for our customers and partners to create these workflows. In particular we will be covering some tools and partnerships which have been created for this particular purpose.

Using the extensibility features of Microsoft Project 2010, I will show you how to 1. Create a list of tasks in Microsoft Project that will require updating during a regular status update cycle 2. Display that list as flexible grid using a Windows Form that can be sorted. 3. Export the data to an XML file for opening in another program such as Excel or a Browser. We'll do this using Visual Studio, so it will be for real.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! This Web Casts will go over the user experience of these tools.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! This Web Casts will go over the user experience of these tools.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! These Web Casts will drill down and provide detailed code-level walkthrough for these tools.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! These Web Casts will drill down and provide detailed code-level walkthrough for these tools.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! These Web Casts will drill down and provide detailed code-level walkthrough for these tools.

The purpose of creating the Project 2010 Solution Starters was to help in the deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! Please check Project 2010 developer center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/project for more details! These Web Casts will drill down and provide detailed code-level walkthrough for these tools.

You are creating a custom Windows application for a client that extracts and displays Project and Resource information. Because the PSI provides no way to filter these entities prior to retrieval from the PSI, you must retrieve all of the projects or resources in order to filter them by Custom Field value. Because this client has some international users on slow WAN links, you must minimize the payload sent to the user by the PSI call.

We are pleased to announce a new TechCenter for Project 2010 focused on Business Intelligence! Based on the partner and customer feedback we are concentrating all technical information about BI in Project 2010 into one single location. The BI center currently offers number of Presentations, WebCasts links to blogs and technical articles as well as links to the “uber” BI center for SharePoint 2010. As you know we leverage the power of SharePoint 2010 in Project 2010 – this is especially true for reporting– if you want to learn basics about SharePoint 2010 BI – the BI center for SharePoint 2010 is your best bet. If you are looking for specific information for Project 2010 – e.g. how to set up BI, create and customize reports – the BI center for Project 2010 is the place to go!

Business Intelligence Resource Center for Project Server 2010 exists in context of the “uber” as per the following illustration:

A: Absolutely – you can use Visio Services, Performance Point Services as well as Excel Services to build reports and data visualizations in Project 2010. We are working on specific materials for this as well.

Q: I have been using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) in 2007 for data visualization. Could I continue using it in 2010?

A: You can still continue using SSRS reports against 2010 with minimal changes. People often look for securing their SSRS reports based on Project Server security – check this out.